A Mid-Season Signing
Saturday, May 20, 2017 – Franklin, MA
In May, David Ortiz’s new book, Papi: My Story, was due out, and he did a handful of book signings in the Boston area. I saw that there was one on a Saturday, at BJ’s Wholesale Club in Franklin, and pretty much knew I had to go. It had been almost two months since I last met him at an event to launch his wine label, Arias, and I joked that I had to go to the book signing so he wouldn’t start to miss me too much. The signing was limited to one copy per BJ’s membership, so I went out the night before and signed up for a trial membership so I wouldn’t have to waste time in the morning.
The line stretched two-thirds of the way down the length of the building before the store even opened.
The event was scheduled for 10:00-12:00, with the store opening at 9. I got up early and made it there by 8:15. I couldn’t believe how full the parking lot was at that hour. The line started outside the doors, went along the whole front of the store, turned the corner, and went two-thirds of the way toward the back, and it just got longer as we waited. Rumor had it that the people at the front of the line had gotten there at 10:00 the night before! (Three days after I sat through a 45° game on Mother’s Day, we were treated to two 90° days and an 80° one the day before the signing, so it actually would have been a decent night for them to camp out.)
Papi: My Story
When the store opened at 9:00, the line moved up. Once in the store, I bought my copy of the book and followed the line down the designated aisles. I was about five aisles down, with the dog and cat food, for the next hour and a half. As I waited, I got a chance to read the first couple of chapters, on Papi’s childhood and his time in the low minors.
We waited in the dog and cat food aisle for an hour and a half.
When I got to the front of the line, they were trying to move everyone through so quickly that I forgot my lines. I had been planning to say that I was enjoying drinking his wine, but instead all I came up with was a generic, “Thank you very much, Big Papi!” Oh well.
It was about 10:45 that I made it to the front of the line.
If Big Papi wanted to put his autograph on something else, like a contract for the second half of the season, I wouldn't object.
The book is an entertaining look at one of Boston’s biggest stars, and had plenty of stories about his career that I hadn’t heard before. You can get your copy on Amazon if you haven’t grabbed one yet.
(For those keeping score at home, this now marked two occasions in recent months that I’ve seen Big Papi, but I’ve only seen Chris Sale pitch once. What’s wrong with this picture? Luckily, that was set to be remedied in my next game, a few days away.)
